Sometimes composers actually want their music to sound incomplete, says Ivan Hewett.
You might ask why composers would do such an odd thing, and one straightforward answer is; to keep people listening. It’s been a common trick in pop music every since A Hard Day’s Night to keep the listeners hanging on for the next track on an album, by fading out a song rather than ending it. Jazz musicians do something similar, by ending a piece on a surprising harmony.
Schumann was a master of this effect. The first song in Dichterliebe circles round on itself, and at the end we’re left hanging.
Why does so much classical music sound unfinished? - Telegraph
You might ask why composers would do such an odd thing, and one straightforward answer is; to keep people listening. It’s been a common trick in pop music every since A Hard Day’s Night to keep the listeners hanging on for the next track on an album, by fading out a song rather than ending it. Jazz musicians do something similar, by ending a piece on a surprising harmony.
Schumann was a master of this effect. The first song in Dichterliebe circles round on itself, and at the end we’re left hanging.
Why does so much classical music sound unfinished? - Telegraph